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Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Remaking Magic: Scaling Spells

In previous posts in this series I've listed a few examples of spells with X costs in Heroes Against Darkness, but costed scaling isn't just limited to damage and bonuses or penalties, it also encompasses other areas like healing, manifestation, and animation.

Let's look at some examples that demonstrate how scaling works for healing. Healing Flash has no scaling:

Healing Flash (1 Anima)

Casting Time

Move action

Spell Effect

Heal Magic bonus HP.

Target

Single target

Attack

Magic vs. MD

Range

Touch or self

Healing Touch has simple scaling, with each anima worth one dice of healing:

Healing Touch (X Anima)

Cost

1 anima per dice of healing.

Spell Effect

Heal Xd6 + Magic bonus HP.

Target

Single target

Range

Touch or self

Finally, Healing Burst has heals all allies close to the caster, but the cost of the healing is 2 anima per dice of healing:

Healing Burst
(3 Anima + X Anima)

Cost

3 anima + 2 anima per dice of healing.

Spell Effect

Heal Xd6 + Magic bonus HP.

Target

All allies in effect area

Attack

Magic vs. MD

Range

Radius 5' per ½ Level from you

Looking at spells that cause physical manifestations, these use additional X costs in different ways. For example, Wall of Ice requires 1 anima for each 2 pillars in the wall:

Wall of Ice
(1 Anima + X Anima)

Cost

1 anima + 1 anima per 2 pillars of ice.

Spell Effect

You create a contiguous wall of ice made up of individual pillars (5' x 5', 10' tall).
Two pillars are created for each X anima spent.
Corporeal creatures cannot move through the pillars or diagonally between them.
No pillar can be created in an occupied position.
Each pillar has 10 HP + 10 HP per ½ Level.

By way of comparison, let's take a look at the Heroes Against Darkness version of Fireball (Level 5 warlock) and the D&D version (Level 3 spell, usable by a 5th level wizard or sorcerer) of same:

Fireball
(5 Anima + X Anima)

Cost

5 anima + 1 anima per dice of damage.

Target(s)

All targets in effect area

Attack

Magic vs. ED

Damage

Xd8 + Magic bonus

Range

10' + 10' per level

Effect Area

Radius 5' + 5' per ½ Level

Miss Effect

Magic bonus damage

D&D Fireball

Target(s)

All targets in effect area

Saving Throw

Reflex save for half damage

Damage

1d6 per level (max 10d6)

Range

400' + 40' per level

Effect Area

20' radius

So there are some swings and roundabouts here, the Heroes Against Darkness version slowly scales in radius with the caster's ½ Level bonus, whereas the D&D Fireball has a much longer range. The biggest difference is that the D&D version scales damage for free, and even when it misses it deals half damage. This means that every time a D&D caster gains a level, this spell becomes relatively cheaper and also more powerful!

When a D&D caster first gets Fireball, it deals 5d6 damage, whereas when the Heroes warlock gets the spell they can only spend 6 anima to deal 1d8 damage to all targets in a 15' radius. For a Level 6 warlock, it deals an average of 13.5 + Magic bonus damage on a hit and 9 damage on a miss. If you hit 5 targets with Fireball, then it'll deal about 110 damage for your 6 anima, which is a reasonable return. At Level 10, the warlock can put 11 anima into the spell, giving it 6d8 damage + Magic bonus (28 + 14) with a radius of 30'. Now, that sounds like a ton of damage (and it is), but keep in mind that at this level the warlock probably has only 18 anima before they have to use their blood anima (or Rally).

The D&D Fireball at 5th level deals on average 17.5 damage on a hit and 8 on a miss. At 10th level, the same spell deals an average of 35 damage on a hit, and 17 damage on a miss. This is slightly less damage than a fully-powered Heroes Against Darkness Fireball, but by level 10 a D&D wizard or sorcerer will be able to cast three such fireballs, plus several level 4 spells and a level 5 spell.